WELCOME!

I hope you enjoy reading these strategies and tips for successful teaching. If you enjoy these, please encourage others to drop in and read them too because I feel that it is important for us to support each other and share ideas that work. Feel free to contact me at:

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Humor is important in the classroom! Laughter is a great
stress reliever too. Laughter also show enjoyment and happiness so I love to go
in a classroom that is filled with laughter and smiles.

Sometimes you can diffuse a tense situation with a humorous
statement.

Sometimes when a student’s anger is escalating, I will ask
for a “time out” and try to tell a knock knock joke. Of course the student
looks at me like I’m crazy and I insist that they join in just for the fun of
it. I promise we can go back to being angry when we are done. By the time I’m
done with the silly joke, the student has either forgotten what he was angry
about or he decides that it isn’t worth the trouble.

When there is a conflict between two students, I try to joke
that they remind me of an old married couple and start laughing. This usually
puts the focus on me and not on each other. As I explain how they resemble and
old married couple, I’m giving them time to calm down.

It is extremely important though that I bring humor into the
situation but make it perfectly obvious that I’m not making fun of them or
laughing AT them. That can make the whole situation even worse.

Sometimes when I’m getting frustrated, it is good to laugh
at myself and even let the students see this. This is a great way to model this
behavior. Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously and it hinders our
learning.

When I’m really at the end of my rope, I even ask my
students to help find something funny or positive about this situation. It is
amazing what they can come up with. The more we practice this, the easier it
becomes.